As many people have been testing the limits of, experimenting with new, and launching tools recently, May's topic cycle on Making Tools Work seemed pretty timely. Through some brainstorming, data and research, and member examples, we got to think on both the large and small scale about our community technology.
In a time of global crisis, we have all had to do more with our tools and technology, so these conversations this month really dove into the specifics of what we need, what we can do, and what we should do when it comes to implementing, building out, launching, and supporting our community programs.
Whether members were launching their first communities, migrating to another, or happily using their technology, these calls opened up space for all of us to discuss what we'd like for the future.
May in TheCR Network: Roundtable Calls
Our first Roundtable Call of May took a deep dive into an area that might seem simple at first, but can actually be much more complex: content.
On "In Content We Trust", we were joined by Margot Bloomstein who opened up a robust conversation around content strategy and trust. From developing rapport with your audiences, to vulnerability in strategy, to the role of command and control in creative work, Margot explained how she thinks about trust in terms of content.
Through familiar topics like vulnerability and trust, we discussed how we should be using our content to create and foster relationships with our members. Content strategy can, and should, empower our members, and all we need to do is lean into vulnerability, transparency, and authenticity.
While this conversation might not have been strictly about tools, it was a great way to start off a month discussing a very straightforward topic because we all need to remember that all of these tools and technology need to work especially well for one group of people: our members. If they inhibit trust-building or collaboration, then are we truly able to create engagement?
If you're interested in reading some more insights that we weren't able to discuss on the call, we asked Margot some follow-up questions and she responded for this blog post.
If you want to listen in on this Roundtable Call, you can find the Roundtable Recording here.
Our second Roundtable Call of May enabled us to get a little creative and brainstorm what we'd like to see from community technology in the future. On "Imagining the Platform of the Future", we gathered together to crowdsource our ideal platform. Using TheCR's Community Platform Requirements Library, we took three key areas (user experience, analytics and reporting, and content) and discussed what we'd like to see more and less of in future platforms.
Overall, we found that we all want more depth rather than breadth when it comes to tool features. More in-depth search and functionality, the ability to customize news, and unique customizable group governance all topped the list when it came to user experience. When it comes to content, moderation, governance, and event management (and integration!) were all popular topics. Finally, the big one was analytics and reporting. Here, better search analytics, measuring behavior (and customizing those guidelines/behaviors!), API hookups, and more out-of-the-box features (vs. third-party or downloaded) were all discussed at length.
Across all of the topics we covered, governance and more user-based features were the pervasive needs. As we all continue to learn how to prove the value of our communities through behaviors and need to have the control to make the appropriate changes necessary to build out a more valuable community program, we know that our technology needs to develop with us. This call enabled us to start to pinpoint what our pain points are and learn about exactly what we need to ask for (or build ourselves...) in the future.
This call could have taken several calls to finish, so we're keeping the conversation going in the Roundtable group. If you'd like to add in your thoughts to the discussion, you can participate in the thread here.
If you want to listen in on this Roundtable Call, you can find the Roundtable Recording here.
Our next call of May was our annual members-only State of Community Management findings call. On "New Research! State of Community Management 2020 Findings", we heard from @Rachel Happe as she shared a sneak peek at what this year's SOCM research report has found. While the report will be released in full in early June, members got to dig into some key data and insights to see what will be in store for the larger report.
Centering around three key findings, Rachel shared the focus for this year's report as how community changes how the world works, with three key findings:
- Advanced Communities Create Generative Value
- External Communities Elevate the Customer Experience
- Internal Communities Reveal Untapped Potential
While this research doesn't specifically deal with only tools, community technology and vendors play a part in the community landscape and are a large part of the overall research findings. But that's all I can say for now... You can find out more when the SOCM 2020 report is released on June 2!
If you want to listen in on this Roundtable Call, you can find the Roundtable Recording here.
For our last call of May TheCR Network members @Chris Catania and @Michelle Mathias, along with Louise and Leslie from the ESRI team, took us through their platform evaluation selection process on "Who's Pitching What? Evaluating Platforms".
A 1.5 year process, GeoNet's platform evaluation started back in the summer of 2018 and included navigating cross-functional relationships, community training and education, benchmarking, and (as the call's namesake suggests) pitching.
Some key takeaways from this process included learning how to defend your recommendations to stakeholders (platform cost was the big one for the ESRI team!), reigning in your requirements list, and taking your time. While the team
doesn't recommend taking almost two years to work through the evaluation journey, they do suggest working through this piece by piece and taking your time to do it right. It's a complex process with many moving pieces, but it can be done, and done well!
If you want to listen in on this Roundtable Call, you can find the Roundtable Recording here. We heard some great examples and thoughts this month, so why not round it out with what we learned about members of TheCR Network overall...
What Did You Think?
For the month of May we opened a poll to ask the question: "How satisfied are you with your primary community platform?"
While we all have issues and challenges with our technology working with it every day, we wanted to know how you all truly feel about the tools you use.
So, let's find out...
The poll results show that the majority of respondents actually show that they're satisfied with their current community platform. With only about 6% of respondents saying that they're not at all satisfied, 58.8% of respondents say that they're satisfied or very satisfied with their platforms. While there is a good amount of respondents saying that they are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with their platforms, the majority think positively about their current tool. And this is great news!
This is only a small sample size, but there is positivity in the landscape, which shows that at least some of us are able to make our tools work.
So, Where Do We Go From Here?
In May, our goal was to keep the line of conversation around tools and technology open and to get a look into what others are doing with what they have. I think we can safely say that we accomplished this.
This by no means marks the end of the conversation, but it does mark a great starting point to continue building. To move forward, we're going to continue talking about findings from the State of Community Management 2020 report and what that means for community professionals. We're also going to continue hosting Who's Pitching What? and Who's Measuring What? calls to highlight the work that members are doing to get support for and measure their community programs.
In thinking about the future, we'll continue to discuss what we all want (and need) moving forward by also taking a quick look back at what needs to be strong first. Before going too deep into the future, I'm looking forward to focus on the Building Blocks of Community in June. If we make sure we have a strong foundation, we can build some pretty beautiful buildings. So let's get to building!
If any of these conversations or concepts have sparked an idea or recommendation for you, let us know! While we plan our programming calendar, we also leave space for reactive programming, spur-of-the-moment topics, and member involvement, so leave us a note or send us a message and we'll get something together to address your topics of interest.
And if you're not a member of TheCR Network, or if you know someone who isn't a member of TheCR Network, but would love to participate in these conversations, please reach out! We're happy to talk about how you or they can get involved.
If you'd rather do that yourself, you can find out more about how to join TheCR Network here.
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